The Presidents of the Central American nations, Mexico and the Dominican Republic got together in Cancun, and agreed to put into motion the preparations needed to achieve regional energy integration by May 2006. They also agreed to meet in the Dominican Republic in 2006. The Presidents set up a technical committee that will meet in the DR in January to work out seven projects that will imply total investments of more than five billion dollars. The Presidential meeting, which lasted for less than two hours, was just the political “pat on the head” for the project of the Presidents who will meet again in the Dominican Republic at the end of May 2006. The Cancun Declaration contains ten agreements to ‘push forward in the area of energy integration by seeking integrated energy markets of oil, natural gas and electricity, in the spirit of optimizing renewable sources as well as efficient energy.” During the first 20 days of January 2006, a IDB (Inter-American Development Bank) contract will go out to a company that will carry out feasibility studies that could lead to the contract tender for the construction of the refinery. According to Fernando Canales, the Mexican Energy Secretary, there are four companies vying for the contract. The refinery will be constructed either in Panama, Costa Rica or Guatemala, and will process 230,000 barrels of oil a day and will cost between US$2.8 and US$4.3 billion.